Gas flares are used in several industries, among them petrochemical plants, natural gas processing, oil wells and landfills. One purpose of gas flares is to safely and cleanly dispose of gases arising from sudden and abnormal process conditions. Such abnormal process conditions could be, for example, the result of a plant emergency or maintenance Another purpose of gas flares is to serve as temporary measure during well production testing. Typically gas flares are implemented as elevated flare stacks for safety reasons and to comply with emissions regulations. A small pilot flame is continually operated near the top of the elevated flare stack to insure that the gas flare system will be functional in the event that gas is to be disposed.
Environmental regulations limit the emissions and particulates from gas flares. Therefore it is important that the burning of the flare flame is maintained in an efficient manner to minimize by-products, for example, black smoke. Black smoke is produced by a flare flame when the oxygen access to the flame is impaired and complete combustion is prevented. One method to improve the flare flame's access to oxygen is to inject steam into the flame. The injection of steam allows surrounding air to be intermixed with the interior of the flame resulting in a more complete combustion and suppression of black smoke. However, if too much steam is injected into the flare flame, a condition referred to as “over-steaming” results, during which the combustion efficiency declines and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are potentially released into the environment.
The monitoring of the combustion efficiency of the flare flame is typically performed by a trained operator and in the event of black smoke appearing from the flare flame, the operator opens a steam valve to maintain an efficient combustion as described above. It would be advantageous if there was a method, a system, and a non-transitory computer readable medium for measuring and controlling flame quality in real-time.